Is lack of trust in their comedy or they really think the public is that dumb they need to know when to laugh?

Or is a by product of its former format, the live laughs with a crowd while filming?

  • thesohoriots@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    An interesting case (from a book which I unfortunately can’t remember the name of) from when Jack Benny’s career transitioned from radio to tv: he hated the laugh track, so much so that he demanded it be cut way back and lowered in volume. He also utilized it in an unexpected way: when he had a live audience in certain cases, if a joke or gag got an unexpected big laugh that he didn’t think deserved the reaction, he’d fill in a laugh track with a more muted response.